September 19, 2014

Around the turn of the new millennium, with years of successful experience in the personal computing industry and a family of renowned engineers at her side, Florence Shih (now considered one of the figureheads of Taiwan’s IT revolution) set out to break new ground in the blossoming field of network attached storage. And thus began, almost exactly a decade ago, the story of one of the storage world’s most innovative players: Thecus Technology Corp.

Unveiling their new line at CeBIT 2005 in Hannover, Germany, Thecus first showed off the 4-bay N4100 (or “sexy little black box” as Hexus referred to it in their review). Since then, Thecus has maintained a track record of unbroken innovation, with each year bringing another first to the world’s stage:

2005 SATA NAS and DAS with eSATA support

2006 5-Bay NAS

2007 Home NAS with RAID 5

2008 NAS with AV-Output

2009 NAS with dual 3.5” and 2.5” drive support

2010 10GbE compatible SMB NAS

2011 NAS with 10GBASE-T support

2012 Home NAS with HDMI / NAS with McAfee Antivirus

2013 Intel Atom SoC CE5315 embedded NAS

2014 Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials NAS

With the changing times and unstoppable progress of technology, Thecus has stayed one step ahead of the curve all the while remaining true to its vision of being the ‘Creator in Storage’. And in the spirit of innovation, Thecus is reenergizing itself with the adoption of a new slogan highlighting their particular expertise in the commercial landscape. Thus, with another 10 years of breakthroughs and storage solutions to look forward to, Thecus is ready to empower the professional in you!

September 12, 2014

Drawing to a close yesterday, the Intel Develop Forum in San Francisco has been hailed as the playground of developers, makers, and creators for all corners of the IT world. Wrapping up the event after 3 days of the world’s greatest cutting edge tech, Intel announced the winners of its lauded Technology Innovation Accelerated (TIA) awards.

Recognizing the pioneers in technology based on a variety of Intel platforms, the nine prizes were decided by Intel employees, journalists, and analysts and awarded to finalists that best displayed innovation in the integration of hardware, software, services, and support. As such, it came as no surprise when Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials, the latest product based on Thecus and Microsoft’s long partnership, won not only a TIA award in the Combined Solutions Group, but also one of three ‘Best of Show’ awards!

“Thanks to our close partnership with Microsoft and Intel, we have again been able to leverage our years of hardware expertise to release a world first with the Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials Thecus NAS line. Receiving these awards also help to highlight the innovation and value that are the fruits of our continued work with these two esteemed partners. ”– Florence Shih, CEO at Thecus Technology Corp.

“The Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials software allows small businesses to protect, centralize, organize, and access their data anywhere by using almost any device,” said Peter Han, Vice President of Worldwide OEM Marketing, Microsoft. “We believe offering our software on Thecus NAS devices will provide an excellent solution for those small businesses looking to protect their data while optimizing their resources with a hybrid, on premise, and cloud-connected offering.”

By introducing advanced features, such as Office 365 access, and an unprecedented level of productivity at a low cost into the SMB market, these award-winning NAS offer a truly exceptional use of Intel technology.

September 10, 2014

Thecus Technology Corp. today announces another world first: Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials is now available for NAS users. Available this October, the 2-bay W2000, 4-bay W4000, and the 5-bay W5000 offer a host of benefits to SMB users, including data protection, integrated cloud services, and secure remote access.

“Thecus NAS provide users with a complete solution to their storage needs. With the additions to the W Series, Thecus is able to offer a more diversified product to its customers. Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials is an ideal pairing with Thecus NAS and will equip small businesses with a powerful and trusted storage solution.”– Florence Shih, CEO at Thecus Technology Corp.

By running Windows Server software on a Thecus NAS, users will be able to simplify the integration of Microsoft’s cloud-based applications and services, including Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. These new NAS offerings provide users with an affordable, flexible solution that minimizes resources spent on business operations while still optimizing productivity.

“The Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials software allows small businesses to protect, centralize, organize, and access their data anywhere by using almost any device,” said Peter Han, Vice President of Worldwide OEM Marketing, Microsoft. “We believe offering our software on Thecus NAS devices will provide an excellent solution for those small businesses looking to protect their data while optimizing their resources with a hybrid, on premise, and cloud-connected offering.”

Thanks to proven Thecus hardware based on the Intel Atom platform, serviced by dual LAN ports and no less than 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and all featuring media connectivity (HDMI and VGA), the new line of world-first Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials NAS are user-friendly yet robust answers to the data needs of every forward-thinking small to medium-sized business.

September 04, 2014

Getting back to its roots, Thecus released the N7710-G and N8810U-G earlier this year to revitalize the high-end SMB market. As specialized networking tools, they proved attractive products for the team over at ServeTheHome who took an in-depth look at what a 10G business solution can do.

Hardware

Looking at the core of the N7710-G, “Thecus has a few key differentiation points in terms of hardware specifications aside from the audio/ video outputs. First, Thecus has 4GB of ECC RAM where many competitive systems are still using 1GB of RAM.” Besides this, there is also the 10 gigabit networking card, which makes the N7710-G “one of the least expensive NAS units with onboard 10 gigabit Ethernet.” In fact, the value of the NAS is so good that the price “with 10GbE is less than competitors sell similar units for without 10GbE pre-installed.” An impressive feat in organizational efficiency.

But what benefits are there to having a 10G NAS, especially only utilizing an RJ-45 port? “The primary benefit here [of having a 10GBase-T interface] is that one can still utilize the network port over existing 1GbE infrastructure. That allows companies to migrate later to faster switches.” Furthermore, “the addition of 10GBase-T Ethernet gives significantly more bandwidth to the platform. The important part here is that one can use this in a home or office setting to drive media output using these ports. In a home segment, being able to play audio or video directly from the NAS unit is excellent.”

Software

The value of the Thecus N7710-G doesn’t stop there, however, as the system software also adds a “responsive” and “intuitive” feel the overall experience. No wonder STH easily made use of iSCSI with their ESXI and Hyper-V lab.

And for power users who desire for greater control of the system, STH has this to add: “One very interesting thing that Thecus opens up to end users is the ability to SSH into the machine for a remote, text based interface. The underlying OS seems to be Red Hat based so it will be familiar to many folks. […]The key here is that the SSH shell is available, but one does not necessarily need to ever use it. Most work will be done directly in the web GUI.”

Conclusion

Awarding the Thecus N7710-G with a final score of 9.5/10, STH finished their review with the following: “The Thecus N7710-G was a great overall performer.”

Thanks to Patrick Kennedy and the rest of the STH team for the review!

August 21, 2014

QNAP® Systems, Inc. today announced the release of the new tower-based Turbo NAS TS-x53 Pro series (available in 2, 4, 6, 8-bay) and the 2.5”-drive SS-x53 Pro series (4 and 8-bay) that provide a powerful and reliable solution for data storage and mission-critical business applications for small and medium businesses. Coupled with exclusive QvPC Technology, these new series can serve as cost-effective PC substitutes that enable direct access to stored data, real-time surveillance monitoring with local display, XBMC digital entertainment, and more.

The TS/SS-x53 Pro series is powered by a quad-core Intel® Celeron® 2.0GHz processor with burst speed up to 2.41GHz and 8GB/4GB/2GB energy-efficient DDR3L RAM (expandable to 8GB), supports 2 or 4 LAN ports that provide up to 400MB/s read & write speeds in port trunking mode, and achieves 70+MB/s read & write AES-256bit encryption performance. “The new models deliver high performance that maintains smooth system operations even during intensive data access,” said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP. “The high-quality hardware also provides the power for users to operate multiple virtual machines using QNAP Virtualization Station, transcode Full HD videos in real-time or offline, and enhance their business productivity with SMB features built-in,” added Hsu.

QNAP’s exclusive QvPC Technology consolidates a number of high-end technologies including VM integration, multimedia transcoding, HDMI output, cloud integration and NAS connection technologies, allowing users to operate the TS/SS-x53 Pro series as a PC when they plug in a keyboard, mouse and monitor. With QvPC Technology, the TS/SS-x53 Pro series is transformed into a cost-effective device with PC functionalities for users to directly access stored data on the NAS, run multiple applications using Windows/Linux/UNIX/Android-based VMs, surf the web on Google Chrome, enjoy Full HD videos with up to 7.1 channel audio with XBMC, monitor the Surveillance Station in real time with local display, and much more.

Users can install the Virtualization Station from the QTS App Center to extend the functionality of the TS/SS-x53 Pro series by operating multiple Windows, Linux and UNIX-based VMs. Virtualization Station offers numerous functions including snapshot, VM import/export, dedicated LAN ports, user permissions, and more. Users can conveniently operate VMs as remote desktops via web browsers for instant management or troubleshooting.

The TS/SS-x53 Pro series, with integrated hardware acceleration, provides superior real-time and offline Full HD video transcoding capabilities to convert videos on-the-fly or in the background to universal formats that can be smoothly played on computers and mobile devices. In the event of limited Internet bandwidth, users can still enjoy smooth videos by selecting lower resolutions to play the videos via File Station, Video Station, or the Qfile mobile app. The TS/SS-x53 Pro series allows multiple users to simultaneously watch different videos stored on it without affecting the performance of other running applications. “This powerful transcoding feature makes the new series perfect for organizations where videos are at the heart of their daily work or digital offerings, increasing their productivity and providing higher-quality videos near-instantly,” added Hsu.

The TS/SS-x53 Pro series has a range of comprehensive business applications and is ideal for SMBs to build a secure private cloud. It supports VMware®, Microsoft® and Citrix® virtualization solutions to simplify virtual storage management. The cross-platform file sharing for Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX users makes the TS/SS-x53 Pro series an ideal centralized storage solution for organizations with a large number of users. The support for Windows AD, LDAP directory services and Windows ACL improves the efficiency of permission settings. The TS/SS-x53 Pro series can also act as a domain controller for Windows, and offers flexible backup solutions for Windows® and Mac® users and disaster recovery solutions including RTRR, rsync and cloud storage backup. The IT Management Station (powered by Mandriva® Pulse) provides an IT system management solution for businesses of all sizes to centrally manage multi-OS and multi-site IT assets. With the unique Signage Station, business users can easily create animated content and advertisements for promoting their services.

Featuring a scalable design, the TS/SS-x53 Pro series allows administrators to connect a QNAP expansion enclosure (UX-500P or UX-800P) to increase the total storage capacity to 96TB with multiple volumes (varies by models). The UX-500P and UX-800P tower expansion enclosures offer SMBs with budget-friendly options to expand their storage capacity on demand to fulfill storage-intensive applications such as video surveillance, data archiving, TV broadcast storage, and for backing-up the entire content of the connected Turbo NAS.

August 09, 2014

With the recent addition of Asterisk compatibility, Thecus NAS can now become your very own communication server. Asterisk provides the building blocks for a plethora of functions, including IP PBX systems, VoIP gateways, and conference servers for small and large businesses, call centers, carriers, and governments worldwide.

Asterisk is a framework for building multi-protocol, real-time communication applications and solutions. Essentially, Asterisk is to real-time voice and video applications as Apache is to web applications: the underlying platform. This allows Asterisk to simplify the complexities of communication protocols and technologies, allowing you to concentrate on creating innovative products and solutions.

Compatible with both Thecus OS5 and OS6, Asterisk is totally free and is also delivered with a secure, web-based administrator interface. The Asterisk NAS module is available in the Thecus Forum and App Center.

August 06, 2014

Synology has been investigating and working with users affected by a recent ransomware called “SynoLocker.” Synology has confirmed the ransomware affects Synology NAS servers running older versions of DiskStation Manager, by exploiting a vulnerability that was fixed in December, 2013, at which time Synology released patched software and notified users to update via various channels.

Affected users may encounter the following symptoms:

When attempting to log in to DSM, a screen appears informing users that data has been encrypted and a fee is required to unlock data.

Abnormally high CPU usage or a running process called “synosync” (which can be checked at Main Menu > Resource Monitor).

DSM 4.3-3810 or earlier; DSM 4.2-3236 or earlier; DSM 4.1-2851 or earlier; DSM 4.0-2257 or earlier is installed, but the system says no updates are available at Control Panel > DSM Update.

For users who have encountered the above symptoms, please shutdown the system immediately to avoid more files from being encrypted and contact our technical support here: https://myds.synology.com/support/support_form.php. However, Synology is unable to decrypt files that have already been encrypted.

For other users who have not encountered the above symptoms, Synology strongly recommend downloading and installing DSM 5.0, or any version below:

DSM 4.3-3827 or later

DSM 4.2-3243 or later

DSM 4.0-2259 or later

DSM 3.x or earlier is not affected

Users can manually download the latest version from our Download Center and install it at Control Panel > DSM Update > Manual DSM Update.

Synology sincerely apologizes for any problems or inconvenience this issue has caused our users. As cybercrime proliferates and increasingly sophisticated malware evolves, Synology continues to devote resources to mitigate threats and is dedicated to providing users with reliable solutions. If users notice their DiskStation behaving suspiciously even after being upgraded to the latest DSM version, please contact security@synology.com.